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The Allure Group’s Harlem and Linden Centers Honored

January 3, 2018

The Allure Group is proud to announce that its Harlem and Linden Centers have been recognized by the AHCA/NCAL’s 2018 Quality Initiative Recognition Program.

The Quality Initiative Program is a nationwide endeavor on the part of the AHCA/NCAL — i.e., the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living — to build upon the existing work of the long-term and post-acute care profession by setting specific, measurable targets to enhance the quality of care in America’s skilled nursing centers and assisted-living communities.

The program honors AHCA/NCAL member facilities that achieve four or more of the following goals:

• Decrease turnover rates by 15 percent from 2015 or achieve/maintain at or less than 40 percent: Research shows that stable, satisfied and happy staffs provide better care and contribute to greater quality of life for residents. The more consistent the staff is, the better it is able to respond to each resident’s needs. The added benefit is that a stable staff is better able to look out for each other; there are fewer work-related accidents and injuries.
• Adopt Core-Q customer satisfaction survey and upload data to LTC Trend Tracker: Patients’ peace of mind is paramount to skilled care, and the Core-Q survey provides a uniform measure of their happiness. That information can then be fed to the LTC Trend Tracker, a web-based tool that enables care providers unfettered access.
• Reduce the number of unintended health care outcomes: A 2014 report by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that 22 percent of patients in skilled nursing centers experienced such outcomes, which can be medication-related, care practice-related, or infection. Some two-thirds were considered potentially preventable based on review of the medical record by physician and nurse reviewers. Approximately one-third of all unintended health care outcomes resulted in a hospitalization. Many of the measures outlined in the IMPACT Act (e.g., pressure ulcers, falls, medication reconciliation, rehospitalization) can be classified as measures related to unintended health care outcomes.
• Safely reduce the number of hospital readmissions within 30 days during a skilled nursing stay by a total of 30 percent from December 2011 or achieve and maintain a low rate of 10 percent: Besides the potential for physical, emotional and psychological impact on patients and health-care professionals, readmissions also cost the Medicare program billions of dollars The issue has become a priority for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and managed-care programs. An example of this is the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Value Based Purchasing (VBP) Program, a CMS effort that links financial outcomes to quality performance that starts on October 1, 2018.
• Improve discharge back to the community by 10 percent from December 2014 or achieve and maintain a high rate of at least 70 percent: Skilled nursing centers are responsible for helping individuals improve functional independence, adequately preparing them for discharge and going a long way toward preventing rehospitalizations. Discharges are measured by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the IMPACT Act, and certain aspects of the Five-Star Quality Rating System. So too do managed-care plans, ACOs, and bundled payment models.
• Improve functional outcomes by 10 percent from December 2015 or maintain an average rate of improvement of 75 percent: The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the IMPACT Act, and CMS have all called for the development of functional improvement measures that are based on self-care and mobility. These measures are now publicly reported and have been added to Nursing Home Compare and used in the Five-Star Quality Rating System.
• Safely reduce the off-label use of antipsychotics in long-stay nursing center residents by a total of 30 percent from December 2011: The use of such medication to treat behavior associated with dementia is not supported clinically and is considered off-label by the FDA, which issued a “black box” warning for the elderly with dementia. These drugs also cost millions in Medicare dollars and increase the risk of death, falls with fractures, hospitalizations, and other complications resulting in poor health and high costs.
• Safely reduce hospitalizations among long-stay residents by 15 percent from December 2014 or achieve/maintain a low rate of 10 percent or less: Hospitalizations potentially expose the elderly to infection, delirium and functional loss. They are also costly, particularly when an individual is hospitalized late in life. Reducing hospitalizations aligns with MedPAC, Medicaid Managed Care, Medicare Managed Care and CMS, all of whom have called for measuring long stay hospitalization rates. Nearly half of AHCA members focus principally on serving a long stay population (less than 100 admissions per year).

The leadership of the Harlem and Linden Centers will be formally recognized at the AHCA/NCAL summit, March 12-14 in New Orleans.